Heathrow said it needs to recruit and train an additional 25,000 staff to meet demand and warned the “headwinds of a global economic crisis, war in Ukraine and the impact of Covid-19” will likely delay recovery for years.
it will be “a number of years” before it carries the same number of passengers it did before the pandemic.
Though demand improved over the summer—the airport said it served 18 million passengers, more than any other European hub—Heathrow said the impact of a looming global economic crisis, lingering effect of the Covid-19 pandemic and Russia’s war in Ukraine will hamper recovery. The airport also admitted it needs to recruit and train an extra 25,000 staff to fill vacancies and meet demand at peak times, which it said will be a “huge logistical challenge.”
The airport operator said it would lift the cap on passenger numbers it imposed to control demand from Sunday, though it cautioned limits would be brought back to manage demand on peak days in the run up to Christmas. The firm said it lost around $460 million this year to the end of September, adding to $4.6 billion from the previous two years.60 million - 62 million. That’s how many passengers Heathrow said it expects to carry in 2022. The figure is significantly higher than the airport’s earlier estimates, though still 25% below pre-pandemic levels in 2019.The aviation sector was particularly hard hit during the Covid-19 pandemic as both domestic and international travel and tourism ground to a halt.